(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

I pray you'll help us put aside all of our other thoughts and help us focus on this message. And I just pray, especially now that you can give me your boldness and give me clarity to just preach your word, I just pray your Spirit will work through me. We just pray all this in Jesus' name, amen. Now before we really get into the sermon, I want to kind of tell you a little bit of a story in history. And this is going to be kind of between the periods of Malachi and the New Testament. There's about a 400-year time gap during that time period. Now if you notice, the New Testament was written in Greek, right? And I know people today are trying to change that and say, some people are trying to say the New Testament was written in Hebrew. That's just absolutely ridiculous to say that. Because Greek was the language. Alexander the Great basically conquered the entire world, and Greek was the language spoken throughout the entire world. Okay, now this part really isn't part of my sermon, but what's the language that's spread throughout the world today? It's English, right? See, people try to say it's ridiculous to suggest that we have a perfect Bible in our language. God put the New Testament in Greek because Greek was a language spread throughout the entire world. It would make no sense for us not to have a perfect version in English. That's the language. English is a language that's been sending out missionaries throughout the entire world. It's the language that's being spread out throughout the entire world. People in countries all over the world speak English. It makes sense that God would give us a perfect Bible. And obviously we would love it if we got Bibles in other languages as well, and I know those projects are being underway, and some languages are getting Bibles, and that's great. But it's ridiculous to suggest that God couldn't put a perfect word in English. I think it makes sense that he would put a perfect word in English because that is the language that's spread throughout the entire world. That's the reason why the New Testament was written in Greek. But when you look at the New Testament, Greece is not the one that's in power in the New Testament. Rome is the one that's actually in power when the New Testament starts. Because during this 400-year time gap, a lot happened in history. And I'm not here to just preach to you a sermon about history. This is just going to be an illustration for the sermon. But Alexander the Great came a little bit before 300 B.C. Alexander the Great died a very young man. He was in his 30s. He died at a very, very young age. And after he died, there was a transition from Greece to Rome. Now there's a king by the name of King Pyrrhus who came a couple years after Alexander the Great died. He was actually a distant relative of Alexander the Great. And King Pyrrhus was the leader over this one region of Greece known as Epirus. And he was taking on the Roman Empire. And Rome was becoming powerful and Rome was more powerful, but King Pyrrhus was called upon to take on the Roman Empire. Now King Pyrrhus showed up to the battle with a lot of elephants. And that might not sound like much today, but back then if you saw an elephant coming at you, people did not know how to defend against an elephant. There's like an expression, you don't bring a knife to a gunfight. And if you bring an elephant to a fight, nobody else has anything that can take on that elephant. And so they actually were able to drive back the Romans and they killed far more Romans than Greek lives ended up dying that day. And they actually would have killed a lot more, but the elephants actually turned on the Greeks and so there was a lot of confusion. They had to get that under control. But the Greeks and King Pyrrhus, they won that battle. They drove back the Romans and they killed lots of lives of the Romans, far more, twice as many pretty much, as Greek lives had died. And that was in the Battle of Heraclea. About a year later they had another famous battle and the same thing happened. The Greeks drove back the Romans and they killed far more Roman lives than Greeks lost their lives. And you would think after these two battles that the Greeks were going to take over and win this war. But see, there's something called a Pyrrhic victory. I'm not sure if too many people have heard of this expression, a Pyrrhic victory. Another way to say it, which might make more sense, is winning the battle but losing the war. See, here's the thing about Rome. Rome had so many reinforcements that it wasn't a big deal to lose that battle. And basically after those two battles that Greece won, they were destroyed in the war. Because they won those battles, they lost far too many casualties and they lost the war as a result. And so it's called a Pyrrhic victory when you win the battle and you lose the war. Now we're going to look at three different main examples in our lives where we can win the battle and lose the war or we could choose to lose the battle in order to win the war. But I want to give you some introductory verses to start out because we're basically talking about fighting here tonight. And in James 3, if you look at verse 14, it says, but if you have bitter ending and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where ending and strife is, there is confusion in every evil work. So we see this word in here, strife. Basically there's a lot of fighting in the Bible that's talking about in James chapter 3. Now this chapter is very famous for being the chapter about the tongue. And the Bible says that no man can tame the tongue. If you look earlier in the chapter, it says in verse 5, even so the tongue is a little member and boasteth great things. Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth. And a tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members that it defileth the whole body and seteth on fire the course of nature and it is set on fire of hell. For every kind of beast and of birds and of serpents and of things in the sea is tamed and hath been tamed of mankind, but the tongue can no man tame. It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison. If we trace back so many of our fights in life, they come back to this thing of the tongue. And the tongue is saying things and not thinking and just having strife in their hearts and just speaking out whatever they're thinking and causing so many problems. And that's what we see here in James chapter 3. Now turn back to James chapter 1. Just two chapters back. And in James chapter 1, looking at verse 19, the Bible says, Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. Now most people are the exact opposite of this. They're very slow to hear and they're quick to speak and they're quick to wrath. You see these things of speaking and wrath, they're tied together. You know, when people get angry in their hearts, they have strife in their hearts, they say hurtful things. That's what we see in James chapter 3. Strife in the hearts and then their tongue just unleashes like a world of poison, a fire that just cannot be tamed. And this is what the Bible is talking about. So we see here in James chapter 1, there's this link between speaking and wrath. When people have strife in their hearts, they speak out and they say hurtful things. Now turn to Matthew chapter 26. You know, I was preparing this sermon and a friend of mine gave me the perfect example, I don't know why I didn't think of this, for the perfect example of someone who chose to lose the battle in order to win the war. In Matthew chapter 26, we see here in verse number 51, it says, And behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck a servant of the high priest and smote off his ear. Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into this place, for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. So what we see here is that Peter's trying to win this battle. He's really intense and he cuts off the person's ear. Notice what Jesus says in verse number 53, Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be? Now Jesus was just in the garden of Gethsemane, and here what he's saying is, he's like, Do you not realize I could call down and the angels would come? He's like, I'm not in trouble in this situation. If I want to be saved, I could be saved. It's not a problem. I can win this battle. Here's the thing in verse 54, But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be? You see, if Jesus didn't die on the cross, if he didn't choose to lose that battle, then he would have lost the war. He wouldn't have been able to die for our sins and pay for our sins, and then his soul went to hell and rose again after three days. He wouldn't have been able to pay for the sins of the world if he chose to win that battle. You know, Jesus chose to lose this battle so we could win the war. The Bible says in Galatians, If there was a way given which life could have been given but... Let me turn there. Galatians 3.21. I'm getting it backwards. Galatians 3.21. Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid. For if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. You see, if there was a way to get to heaven by our works, that's how it would be. It wouldn't be based on Jesus dying and going to hell if he didn't have to. If it could have been by works, that's the way it would have been. But that's the only way we could possibly go to heaven. Jesus said in the book of John that it was expedient for him to leave because otherwise the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, would not be able to come. You see, Jesus had to choose to win this battle or he would have lost the war. We would not be able to go to heaven unless Jesus paid for our sins. People wonder why is Jesus the only way to heaven. He's the only one who paid for our sins. I mean, you look at Islam, you look at all these other religions, people say, well, they believe basically the same thing. They have good moral teachings. They believe in the Ten Commandments too. They have a completely different view of what it takes to get to heaven. See, we believe it's Jesus alone and every other religion in the world, including most churches, believe it's by works. They don't really believe that Jesus had to die because they think their works are going to get him to heaven. It makes absolutely no sense why Jesus would have been crucified and gone to hell to pay for our sins if we get to heaven by our works. It makes absolutely no sense. But someone that's not saved, they're blind. That's why they need to see the truth and we need to show it to them. That's why we need to be going out, going soloing, and getting people saved. Now turn to 1 Timothy chapter 6 and we're going to look at a few verses in Timothy and we're going to get into our main points. First Timothy chapter 6. Right after 1 and 2 Thessalonians before Titus and Philemon. First Timothy chapter 6 and verse 11 it says, But thou, O man of God, flee these things and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. Now I don't want anyone to misunderstand what I'm saying tonight. I'm not saying that we shouldn't be involved in a battle at all. Because most Christians, they don't seem to think that there's a battle at all, which is ridiculous. I mean, we're in a war. We're in a fight. We're in a spiritual fight. We see that in Ephesians chapter 6. We're in a battle, but here's the thing. Fight the good fight of faith. See there's a bad fight, and there's a good fight. See if we waste our time with battles that don't matter, what we're going to do is we're going to win a lot of battles, and we're going to lose the end goal, the war in the end of what we really need to accomplish. In verse number 20 it says, O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings and oppositions of science, falsely so called. We're supposed to avoid profane and vain babblings. You're not supposed to have these couple hour long debates with people about things that don't matter and get involved in all the strife about things that don't matter at all. Look at the end there. It says oppositions of science, falsely so called. You know, global warming, evolution within and under this category. We don't need to have three hour evolution debates to see is it 6,000 years old or is it billions of years old? Because people that believe in evolution, they're not saved, and if they're not saved, they need to see the gospel. They need to see that Jesus Christ paid for their sins. They don't need to hear an argument about how some tree in Montana, we have proof that it's only this many thousand years old. That's not going to get them saved. It does nothing. And those debates, they're entertaining, but honestly, they're a waste of time. And see, here's the thing about this. The devil, he doesn't mind if you're zealous as long as you're not zealous about things that actually matter. See, God, the devil doesn't really care what you do on Sunday mornings as long as you're not in church. You know, whether it's watching sports or paying attention to politics or whatever it is, he doesn't really care as long as he can get your mind off the main war that we're fighting into some battle or something else that just does not matter that much. Turn to 2 Timothy chapter 2, just a few pages over, maybe the next page in your Bible. It says in 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 3, thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. So the Bible says not to entangle ourselves with the affairs of this life in order to please God. God doesn't want us to get involved in things that just don't matter. Now it says we're a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Like I said, I'm not saying that we're not supposed to fight, but what I'm saying is we need to fight a good fight. We need to fight a smart fight. I mean, the Bible says be wise as serpents and harmless as doves, okay? And it says here later on in this chapter, verse 22, the same sort of thing he said in the book. The Bible talks about fleeing youthful lusts. I think most people that are pretty zealous and have been saved for a long time could probably raise their hand and say, when I first got saved, I enjoyed just arguing with people and proving them wrong and making them look stupid. I remember when I lived back in West Virginia and I knocked on somebody's door and this person was like a grad student in biology. And I had watched all the Ken Hovind seminars, all this creation stuff and everything like that. And so I got into like an hour-long debate about evolution. And I felt like I smashed the guy. But see, here's the thing about it. He didn't get saved. It was a waste of time and maybe somebody at the next door would have gotten saved. It was fun, but it was a youthful, stupid lust. It was a stupid thing to waste my time with something that did not matter. Now let's look at 2 Timothy 4.7. Actually, you can turn to Matthew chapter 10 and I'll just quote this verse in 2 Timothy 4.7. See, Paul told Timothy to fight a good fight. And this is what Paul was able to say at the end of his life in 2 Timothy chapter 4. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. You see, Paul wasn't a hypocrite. He didn't tell people to do something that he wasn't doing. He was telling people to fight a good fight and Paul fought a very good fight. I mean, he wrote half the New Testament. I mean, he was probably about the most zealous soul winner maybe who ever lived. I mean, he fought a good fight. And one of the reasons why, even someone is wise, I mean, Paul was a wise person. He knew many languages. He was a very intelligent person, but he was smart enough not to waste his time with things that just don't matter. Now in Matthew chapter 10, I really want to look at three main points here tonight. And the first point I want to apply this to of winning the battle and losing the war versus losing the battle, winning the war, a pyrrhic victory is the application to soul winning. Now I thought about this, you know, at church, you know, a lot of people in here do go soul winning and a lot of people don't go soul winning. Now here's the thing. If you don't go soul winning, you need to get involved in the fight. Okay, we are in a fight. We're in a spiritual battle. You know, I'm not going to avoid this topic because of the fact if you're not going soul winning, you need to start coming. You need to start coming on Saturday mornings with us as a church. You need to talk to Pastor Mendez and find a time and somebody will go with you. You need to be involved in the big fight. It doesn't matter how many good things you're doing because the main goal, the main reason why we're here is to win souls of the Lord. I mean, what did Jesus Christ say in Mark chapter 16? He says, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. That's the commandment he gave us. And then later on, a few verses later, he said the Lord working with us. God's going to work with us, but we have to be working or he can't work with us. It says in 2 Corinthians, God hath committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation. Nobody else is going to be doing it. It is our job to go out there and get people saved. You might say, well, you know, Brother Stuckey, I mean, I don't have that sort of talent. You sound like you're eloquent. You sound like you do this. Pastor Mendez is eloquent. Trust me, the first time I went soul winning, if we had that recorded, I sounded like a fool. I had absolutely no clue what I was doing. The first time I preached a sermon, you say, you don't sound very good right now. I know, you should have heard the first time I sounded really, really bad. You know, nobody when they first start something is going to become an expert overnight. Everybody has to choose to humble themselves. You have to be willing to embarrass yourself. It starts at the ground level. It doesn't matter what age you are, you need to get involved in the fight now because soul winning is why we're here. You're going to come to the end of your life one day and you're going to wonder, what did I do with my life? You know, what was the purpose? You know, I didn't lead anyone to the Lord, you know, what did I really accomplish in life? See, the reason why we're here, the main reason is soul winning. Now in Matthew chapter 10 verse 1, it says, and when he had called on to him his 12 disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. Now drop down to verse number 11, and it says, and into whatsoever city or town you shall enter, inquire who in it is worthy, and there abide till you go thin. So I want you to look at that word there, worthy. Inquire who is worthy, okay? Verse number 12, and when you come into a house saluted, and if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it. You know, the Bible talks about the gospel of peace. Let your peace come upon it. But if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you. And whosoever shall not receive you nor hear your words when you depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I send you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves, be therefore wisest serpents and harmless as doves. Now the Bible talks here about being worthy, okay, because here's the thing. People that are used to soul winning, most people that we knock their door, they don't want to listen. They don't care about it. Now some people have a method of just trying to give them the gospel anyway and just shoot out a bunch of verses till they slam the door in their face. That's ridiculous. You don't see that in the Bible. That person is just not worthy. If they won't receive your words, you just go on to the next door. You don't cram it down your throat. Here's the reason why. It doesn't work. I mean a lot of people in here have tried that method. Anyone who's tried that method, anyone who's experienced soul winning is going to tell you it does not work to just throw a bunch of verses at them and just annoy them. We're not there to try to make people mad. Most of the time I go on soul winning, I don't get in fights. Most of the time people don't get mad at me. If they don't want to hear the truth, I go on to the next door. We're not here to get in fights. And you have to understand something. We are in a spiritual fight. And if you waste all of your energy getting in fights here and there, you're not going to have any energy to do what God wants you to do. I mean it takes a lot of energy to fight. I mean who in here used to be a wrestler? I know Brother Darrell. I mean if you've wrestled before, it only takes a few minutes. I remember I used to be a soccer player and I literally ran 40, 50 miles a week. And I remember wrestling a friend of mine who was a wrestler for like three minutes. And I was absolutely exhausted. I mean I was in really good cardio shape, but man, wrestling is tiring. Wrestling is tiring. And if we get involved in these fights that just don't matter, we're going to waste our energy on things that just don't matter instead of what God wants to use our energy on. See if they don't want to hear the gospel, you just leave that door. But see here's the thing about this. There's other people that will listen to you, but at the same time you can break those into categories as well. The good category is those that listen. They want to hear the truth. We show them the verses. And they either get saved or they don't save. It doesn't mean they're going to believe it just because they see the verses. But they're willing to look at the truth. There's other people that just want to argue with you. There are a lot of people door to door that will spend an hour with you arguing with you. And then there's other people that will listen to you or give them the gospel and it just like completely went over their head. It's clear they're just not paying attention. They're just really bored or something so they're listening to you. Now here's the thing about this. Only that first group are the people that you should be talking to. You see if you start talking to someone and they just clearly just want to argue and they don't want to listen to you, you just move on to the next door. It's a waste of time if somebody wants to argue with you. It's an absolute waste of time. And it's the mark of a mature soul winner who is able to walk away from a situation and say, you know what, it's just not worth getting in this battle. Because if you know the Bible well, you could stay at a door and argue with a Mormon and make them look like a fool for 30 minutes. It doesn't take much. Those Mormon elders, they don't know anything about the Bible. I mean if you're scared to go soaring because of the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witness, they don't know that much. They have a few memorized verses. They really don't know much about the Bible. But I'll tell you what, those people are not that receptive to the truth. I mean if I were to ask you right now to raise your hand, and I'm not going to, if you've ever won a Catholic to the Lord, there'd be a lot of hands that would be raised up. But if I were to ask you if you've ever won a Catholic priest, nobody's hand would be raised up. You know, I was in Utah for a couple summers and I was able to win some Mormons to the Lord. But here's the thing about this. Every Mormon I won, they didn't really believe in the church that they were at. It's just cool to say, hey, I won a Mormon to the Lord. They didn't even believe in it. I mean, nobody's going to raise their hand and say, I won a Mormon Bishop to the Lord. But see, that's the thing. When people go out soul winning, it's a thing of pride, honestly, where people want to be able to say, I just had this big conquest. I just smashed this Mormon, this debate. I smashed this Jehovah's Witness. I mean, trust me, I used to do that a long time ago. You know, I started going soul winning around 11 years ago and it's a foolish, stupid thing to do because we have to understand what our main goal is when we're soul winning. Guess what the main goal is when we're out soul winning? To win someone to the Lord. We're not there to get in battles about things that just don't matter. We're there to win someone to the Lord. So the Bible says if they don't receive your words, then, you know, it says, let your peace come upon it. If they will, if they're not worthy, let your peace return to you. Now turn to Luke chapter nine and I'll quote you Titus chapter three, because here's the thing about this. God talks about soul winning a lot and he says it's our job, but he didn't leave us clueless on how to do it. There's lots of examples of people getting saved in the Bible and he gives us illustrations like in Matthew 10 of who to talk to. And in Luke chapter nine, we're going to see this as well. But in Titus 3 10, the Bible says, a man that is in heretic after the first and second admonition reject. Okay. See, when you're going soul winning and you show somebody a couple clear verses that they deserve hell, you show them James 2 10, Revelation 21 eight, and then they say, you know what? I think I'm good enough to go to heaven. You know, I don't think I deserve hell. You know, they're basically rejecting the Bible. If they're not willing to believe the Bible, then you move on to the next door. If you show them a couple clear verses that Jesus Christ has got in the flesh and they just say, well, I don't believe that I still believe, you know what I was taught, you move on to the next door. You don't waste your time with someone that doesn't believe the Bible because if they don't believe this book right here, if they don't believe the verses that you show them, they're not going to get saved. And we are spinning our wheels and we're wasting our time and we're getting involved in a pyrrhic victory where we win the battle, but we lose the war. Because so often I wonder in my mind when someone wants to waste my time at the door, I wonder if there's someone maybe a couple of doors down that really wants to hear the gospel and the devil just says, you know what? I want to get you to waste your time right here and see the devil's like, you can come out soul winning. That's fine. I'll send somebody to waste your time. And sadly, here's the thing, like in Luke nine, we see a parallel passage and he talks about in verse number one and then he called his 12 disciples together and gave them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases and he sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. And so then he talks about this preaching the gospel, like in verse six it says preaching the gospel. Go down to verse number 10. It says in the apostles, when they were returned, told them all that they had done. I think this is interesting because, you know, we go out soul and I think one of the coolest things is to come back and share the stories together, right? Now see, Jesus has made it very clear to them, preach the gospel to those that are worthy. Do you really think that James came back and said, you know what, I just smashed this Sadducee in this two hour debate. Do you really think he did that? And Jesus just said, just preach to those that are worthy. Do you think he came back and glory and said, man, I just dominated this Pharisee in this debate. I don't think they did that because Jesus made it very clear what you're supposed to do. And that is a funny example, but here's the thing about this. I've been so many, many times at various churches. We have a big group and somebody comes back and they just glory in this long debate they had where nobody got saved and other people came back and they led people to the Lord and someone's coming back saying, man, I just smashed this person and it's like, what were you doing? What was the purpose? I mean, it's a thing of pride to want to stay in there and win the argument. Now, just Tuesday night I went soloing with Brother Al and I had an absolutely terrible night soloing and I actually praise God for it because I have a couple of good illustrations for this sermon. Everybody loved Al. I mean, he led someone to the Lord. And for something about me that night, I don't know what it was, but I preached the gospel to this one guy. He was coming out of his house and I just asked him if he went to church anywhere and he's like, oh, he's like, I just moved here, I'm looking for a church. And I asked him if he knew for sure he was going to heaven and he's like, oh, yeah, he's like, I'm saved, I know I'm going to heaven. I was like, well, that's great. I was like, what do you think it takes to be saved? He's like, all you got to do is believe, just believe. I was like, well, that's great. Do you think a person can lose their salvation? And immediately he said, you know, why is that important? He's like, that's a philosophical question. And all of a sudden he got angry immediately. And I said, well, it's important because the Bible says that given to them eternal life and they shall never perish. It says the gift of God is eternal life. He's saying you have to believe this in order to be saved. I said, you have to believe there's no works to be saved and no works to keep your salvation, that there's nothing to do to earn it and nothing to do to lose, that it's 100% Jesus. And this person got extremely angry and then he wanted to argue. And I just said, well, we have and I showed him on the invitation, I said at the bottom it says the Bible would have and if you get a chance, please watch that. And I walked away. And you can ask brother out. He was like yelling at me when I walked away and said, well, I'm not going to go to your church. You're not going to reach very many people with that attitude. And here's the thing about this. I could have stayed at that door and argued with that person for a long time. But see, that is a person who the Bible defined as not worthy because they weren't receptive to the truth. They didn't want to see what the Bible said. They just weren't interested in what the Bible said. And there's another example as well. And so we're going out sowing in this other girl that I talked to and she was listening to the gospel and I gave her the gospel for about 10 minutes and it was clear she believed in work salvation and she tried to say, well, no, no, no, we believe the same thing. You just misunderstand me. I said, we don't believe the same thing. I was like, the Bible says it is a free gift. You don't have to repent of your sins. You don't have to turn from your sins. You don't have to quit drinking. It's a free gift. And she did not believe that. And the same thing I did. I gave her the invitation and said, you know, please check out this video. And I said, I'm not trying to be mean. I said, I just, I want you to see this video if you get a chance. And I walked away. You say, why didn't you just stay there and just debate with them? Because if they don't want to hear the truth, you walk away. That's what Jesus said to do. You know, if they've seen what the Bible says and they reject it, you just move on to the next door. Some people are intimidated out. So I don't know what people think soul winning is like, but soul winning is not about getting in lots of huge fights. I mean, most of the time you don't get in fights. You just go on to the next door. It's not a big deal. You don't have to worry about someone trying to shoot you or anything out. So that's, that would be an extraordinarily rare situation. So winning is, it's not that intimidating to go out. And so, so that's the first point where we can spend a lot of time getting involved in a battle where we can win the battle at the door and we can lose our ultimate objective. Now go to 2 Samuel chapter 6 and we can lose 2 Samuel 6 and our actual goal is to win someone to the Lord. So if we get involved in these battles that don't matter, it will hurt our main objective. We only have so much time out soul winning. We don't have hours and hours and hours on Saturday. We only have a limited amount of time. So we need to inquire who in it is worthy. Find the people that want to hear the truth. In 2 Samuel chapter 6, the next application to this is, is to marriage, you know, between marriage between a husband and a wife where you can win the battle and lose the war. Look at 2 Samuel chapter 6 verse 16 and the Bible says, and as the Ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michael Saul's daughter looked through a window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord. And she despised him in her heart. So we see here that it starts from the heart. She despises her husband. She hates David, the Bible says. Now we need to understand the context of this beforehand. David is married to other women as well. And Michael was married to another guy and she was taken from her husband to be brought to David. So you can see how she would not be very happy at this moment, right? You can see where the marriage is a pretty messed up marriage at this point. But what it says is that she despises her husband in her heart. She despised him in her heart. Now verse number 20, then David returned to bless his household and Michael, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet David and said, how glorious was the king of Israel today who uncovered himself today in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovered himself. Now it's clear from the words that are coming out of her mouth that she's trying to start a fight. Instead of letting things pass, she decides she wants to start a fight. Now here's the thing about this. When you're married, your ultimate objective is to have a long, healthy, loving marriage. That is your main objective. That's the war, so to speak, that you're fighting. The battle would be any individual fight or situation that you have with your spouse where there could be a fight. And so we see here this situation where they're having this battle and both sides want to win this battle. David wants to win the battle. Michael wants to win the battle. She starts off the fight and then David does not quench that fire. He just brings it to a whole other level. In verse number 21 it says, And David said unto Michael, It was before the Lord, which chose me before thy father. That's a pretty harsh thing to say considering that her father passed away, like King Saul was dead. I mean, that's a harsh thing to say right there. But then he goes on and says, And before all his house to appoint me, ruler over the people of the Lord over Israel. Therefore will I play before the Lord, and I will yet be more vile than thus, and will be base in mine own sight, and of the maidservants which thou hast spoken of, of them shall I be had in honor. Now I could see a very huge fight happening right here. After those comments, both sides want to win this battle. Neither side was interested in having a long, healthy marriage at that moment. They lost control and they both just threw out things with their tongue. Look at verse number 23. Therefore Michael, the daughter of Saul, had no child unto the day of her death. She had no child. I believe it's clear from the passage because they didn't have a normal marriage after that point. They pretty much had nothing to do with each other after that point. Because of the fact, neither one was willing to let the battle pass. Neither one was willing to lose the battle in order to win the war. Both sides chose to win the battle and then both sides ended up losing the war. Both sides lost the main objective as a result of that. Now as I mentioned, David was married to multiple women at this time. And David is a very interesting character because he was married to multiple women but there was never one woman where he really had a perfect relationship it seemed like with. But he also had a really strong friendship with Jonathan. If you want to go back in 2 Samuel 1 verse number 26. In 2 Samuel chapter 1 verse 26 the Bible reads, I am distressed for thee my brother Jonathan. Very pleasant hast thou been unto me. Thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women. So David looked at Jonathan as, he was closer to Jonathan I believe than any of his wives that he was married to. He looked at Jonathan as his best friend. He had a really strong friendship with Jonathan. Now turn to Solomon chapter 5. Psalms Proverbs Ecclesiastes Solomon. Psalms is about the middle of the Bible, a couple books over. Proverbs Ecclesiastes Solomon. Song of Solomon, yes. And in Song of Solomon chapter 5 starting at verse number 8. Because we see here that David had a really strong friendship with Jonathan. Now here's his son Solomon and in this story this is what it says. This woman is frantically looking for her husband in Song of Solomon chapter 5. She misses her husband. She's trying to find him. And in verse number 8 it says, I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved that ye tell him that I am sick of love. Now I personally believe when it says sick of love I don't think it's saying physically she was sick. But I think just all of the stress and the emotion involved, she's basically saying I can't take it anymore. But in verse number 9 it says, this is the daughters of Jerusalem. This is their response. They say, what is thy beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among women? What is thy beloved more than another beloved that thou dost so charges? They're basically saying, what is so special about your husband more than anybody else? Now we notice in the next several verses how she talks about how perfect her husband is. But notice in verse number 16, the last verse of the chapter, I love this phrase, this is my beloved and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. She viewed her husband as a friend. You see, when you're married, your number one friendship without a doubt should be between husband and wife. It shouldn't be your old buddies that you used to hang out with all the time. It should be with your spouse above anything. And honestly, if you get that right, a lot of problems in marriage are going to be gone out the window. You know, that is the way that she looked at her husband. And the Bible says about a friend, a friend loveth at all times. See, if you really look at someone as a friend, you might get in arguments, but you're willing to let it pass because you honor that friendship and you love that friendship. You want to stay friends with that person. Now turn to 1 Peter chapter 3 in the New Testament, 1 Peter 3. And see, I think if David had invested more time into Michael, I mean, it is a really messed up situation. I mean, we're looking through it in 1 Samuel. But I think that marriage could have definitely worked. But I don't think that David or Michael really looked at that relationship and invested everything into it. David was closer friends with Jonathan, you see, in his life than any woman that he was with. Now in 1 Peter chapter 3, the Bible says in verse number 1, likewise ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands. Now go down to verse number 4, and it talks about the woman here in verse number 4 says, but let it be the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price. For after this manner in the old time, the holy women also who trust in God adorned themselves being in subjection unto their own husbands. So the Bible talks about how great it is, the woman with a meek and quiet spirit. And then in verse number 6, it gives us an example. Now we saw examples with, there's a lot of examples you see in the New Testament where people are bad examples. But here we're going to see that Sarah was a great example. It says in verse number 6, even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well and are not afraid with any amazement. Then it says in verse 7, likewise ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life that your prayers be not hindered. So the Bible says as husbands, you're supposed to dwell with your wives according to knowledge. You're supposed to get to know your wives. Now if you don't talk to them, you're not going to get to know them that well. You need to get to know and understand your wives. That's what the Bible's teaching. Now look at verse number 8, the Bible says, finally be all of one mind, having compassion, one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous, not rendering evil for evil or railing for railing, but contrary wise, blessing, knowing that ye are thereunto called that ye should inherit a blessing. See rendering evil for evil, railing for railing, that's what people do when they get in fights. They just go back and forth and just try to, you know, you hurt my feelings, I'm going to take it to another level. And people just keep going, going, going, try to win that battle, and you're just causing long-term damage to that marriage when you do that. Now keep your place in 1 Peter 3 and go to Psalms chapter 34. Psalms is in the very middle of your Bible, Psalms chapter 34. Because what we're going to see in 1 Peter chapter 3 verses 10 through 12, that is a parallel passage to Psalms chapter 34, here what we're going to read. The Bible says in Psalms 34 verses 11 through 15, verse 11, come ye children, hearken unto me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. So in Psalms 34, God's going to show us the fear of the Lord, and he's going to show us something that's going to be quoted in 1 Peter chapter 3. It says, starting at verse 12, what man is he that desireth life and loveth many days that he may see good? Keep thy tongue from evil and thy lips from speaking guile. Depart from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. So the Bible says, keep your tongue from evil. Just like in James chapter 3 that we were talking about about the tongue, and your lips from speaking guile. Now go back to 1 Peter 3, and you're going to see a lot of similar wording there. In verse number 10, it says, for he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile. Let him eschew evil and do good. Let him seek peace and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers. But the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. You can compare that if you get a chance in your free time, but God uses parallel passages. Now here's the thing. When God repeats something in the Bible, I think it's pretty important. If he mentions it more than one time, it is very important. And it's interesting that in Psalms, that he chose the part in Psalms 34 to attach it right to the end about the proper relationship between a husband and a wife. Now turn your Bible to Proverbs chapter 17 verse 9. So the first point we had is with soul winning. When you're out soul winning, you can have a lot of pyrrhic victories. You can win a lot of battles. You can spend all your time debating various people, and you can lose the war in the end. Instead of actually getting people saved, you can spend all your time just debating people that aren't interested. You know, the same thing with marriage. You can win a lot of battles with your spouse. You can get in an argument and make them realize that they were the ones that were wrong and into huge arguments every single day, week after week. But let me tell you something. If you do that, you're causing long term damage to your marriage. In a room this big, I guarantee you between husbands and wives, there's people that have been in fights in the past week, and they'll be in fights in this next week. I mean, these situations happen in life. Nobody can tell me that they've never been in a fight with their spouse before. That's not reality. You know, two people that live together and around each other all the time, different personalities, things are going to happen. But see, the next time you have a situation arise, the next time that you're in a battle or you're in a fight with your spouse, remember this, that if you choose to try to win that battle, you're doing long term damage to your marriage in the process. You're losing the war. You're losing the goal of actually having a long, successful marriage because you decided that you wanted to win that battle. Now in Proverbs chapter 17, verse 9, the last application of this, of Pyrrhic victories, is with fellow church members. Now it's interesting about Pyrrhic victories that you can look at them. In politics, people talk about them, in sports, in all areas of life, and we can apply these things to our jobs and things like that. But I want to talk about church because of the fact our goal at this church is to be around each other, striving together in order to win people of the Lord for year after year after year after year. And if we're getting in fights within the church and causing problems, people are going to leave the church and it's going to do damage to this church. So I think it's very important to try to apply this to us as well here tonight. It says in Proverbs 17, verse 9, he that covereth a transgression seeketh love, but he that repeateth a matter, seperateth very friends. Now here's the thing about this. If you choose to gossip at church about someone else, are you seeking love when you do that? You're not. You're trying to cause problems. You're trying to make yourself feel better. When we gossip at church, you know what ends up happening? You're not choosing love. You're choosing to try to cause problems, and it can separate friends. People spread rumors or people say things. Any single person in this room, if every single sin that you ever did was brought before you and everybody else saw it, we would all look terrible. We're all sinners. Praise God that when you get saved, you're never going to have your sins brought up before you. People have this wrong idea that at Judgment Day, God's going to bring every sin before you. That's not what the Bible teaches. See, when you get saved, your future sins are all wiped away, not just your past sins. Past, present, future says cast as far as the East is from the West. They're completely gone. You don't have to worry about them ever coming up. Praise God for that. Here's the thing about this. Other Christians, sometimes they like to bring up your sins and mention them to every people. They separate friendships. They cause problems in the church, and they're not seeking love when they do that. Drop down to verse number 27 in the same chapter. It says, he that hath knowledge spareth his words, and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit. Then it says, even a fool when he holdeth his peace is counted wise, and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding. See, this is why we started with James chapter 3, because so much about fights in the Bible come back to this thing of the tongue, and the tongue just getting out of control and not being able to control itself. It causes so many fights, so many battles, and the Bible talks about the person with knowledge should spare his words. We need to learn to just not say anything sometimes. This was an expression I learned as a kid, but it's true. If you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything. That's true. If there's nothing good to say, then you're not going to be helping out anybody. We need to learn to control our tongues. It's difficult. I'm not standing up here saying that I'm perfect. This is a very difficult thing. That is why the Bible talks about it a lot. That is why this sort of sermon needs priests, because we need to learn to control our tongues. It says in Proverbs 25, if you want to turn over a couple pages, Proverbs 25, verse 8. It says, Go not forth hastily to strive, lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof when thy neighbor hath put thee to shame. The Bible talks about don't be hasty. Don't just try to quickly get into fights and conflicts. It says in verse 9, debate thy cause with thy neighbor himself and discover not a secret to another. You see, if you have a problem with someone, you need to talk to them individually. That's the pattern we see throughout the Bible. Let's just go around and tell other people, well, so and so did this, and that rumor gets passed down, and all of a sudden everybody at the church knows about this. One of my old churches I went to for a couple years, somebody at the church told me about one of the members, and they just kind of said in passing about, oh yeah, about him cheating on his wife, something he had done like 10 years ago, or 15 years ago. I was angry when they said that. I was like, why are you telling me that? I was like, I don't want to know about that. They said, well, everybody knows that, and I said, well, I didn't know that. I said, I like brother so and so, and I don't know if what you're saying is true or not, but I said, it's hard not to think about it now. I was like, I didn't want to know that. We need to make sure that we don't repeat matters that other people say. If somebody does something wrong, you don't have to tell everybody about it. You can just keep it to yourself and seek love. We shouldn't go forth hastily to strive. Now turn in the New Testament to Philippians chapter 1, and we're almost done. We just have a few more verses. Philippians chapter 1, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Philippians chapter 1, it says, verse number 27, only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. That's what we ought to be doing at this church. We need to be striving together, not be getting in conflicts around the church and causing problems. We need to strive together for the faith of the gospel. Now turn to Philippians chapter 3, just two chapters over. And in Philippians chapter 3, verse 15, the Bible reads, let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded, and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Now this sounds like a confusing verse, but if you look at it in the context, what it's saying, the Bible's talking about someone who's really trying to live a good life and is starting to read the Bible more, going to church, going soul-willing, he's got everything right. And the Bible says, God shall reveal even this unto you. So we have a tendency to think, I've got to go to so and so and say, you know, you're not dressed right. I've got to go to so and so and say, you're listening to the wrong type of music. But the Bible doesn't say that. The Bible says, God shall reveal even this unto you. You know, we don't need to do that. Go up to people and say, you're wrong about this and this and this. That's where the preaching behind the pulpit comes, and that's where reading the Bible comes in. And that's one reason why we should all be reading the Bible every single day as much as you can, because it's going to help you so much see what the Bible says. Now go back to Proverbs. We're just going to look at a few verses in closing. In Proverbs 14, you know, one thing that's interesting is people seem to have a tendency to like to criticize about the people that are actually doing most of the work. This is the way that it seems to be. You know, the Bible talks about knowing those which labor among you. I think we all ought to be very, very careful at criticizing somebody else who's really doing the work. And there's a lot of people in here that go soul winning and are doing great things for God. We need to be careful not to try to find something in their life and just tell everybody about it and see problems in other people. Now in Proverbs, chapter 14, verse 29, the Bible reads, he that is slow to wrath is of great understanding, but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly. In Proverbs 29, I'll just read these. Turn to Psalms 119. That'll be our last verse, Psalms 119. In Proverbs, chapter 29, verse 11, you don't have to turn there, a fool uttereth all his mind, but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards. In Ecclesiastes 7, 9, the Bible says, be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry, for anger resteth in the bosom of fools. You see, the Bible teaches, it warns against us just losing our cool so quickly. What happens is people start to have fightings within, they strive in their heart, and then they just go out and then they just say something really, really hurtful to people that cause so many problems. Now this sermon was really about fighting and how we can, we need to control this, but I want to give you an application of how you can really work on this. Psalms 119, verse 165. Because we saw in James chapter 3 about how it starts in the heart, and that's how everything starts. The Bible talks about out of the heart cometh forth all these things. Now in Psalms 119, the Bible reads, great peace have they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend them. See, here's the thing about this. People that get easily offended are also the people that say the harshest things. Those things are linked together. When people easily get hurt, they try to hurt other people. And see, here's the thing about this. The Bible says, and if people get hurt very easily, that means they're offended very easily. So what it's saying in Psalms 119, verse 165, it says, great peace have they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend them. See here's the thing about this. If we would actually dig into this book and spend 15 minutes a day and 30 minutes a day and as much time as we possibly could, so many of these fights we wouldn't even have to worry about. So much of this sermon you'd realize it wouldn't even be in your life anymore. If we would just spend the time to get in this book, because things wouldn't offend us so easily. All of a sudden we'd start to realize so many of these things in life, they're just not that important. It's not that big a deal, what so and so said about me, or you know, I'm sure they didn't mean that. But instead, if we're not reading this book, we just start to get this attitude where we want to fight, we get mad about everything, and then we say harsh things. But the Bible says great peace have they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend them. Now I love what brother Graham preached yesterday morning before the soul winning time, because he was preaching about lending our time on to God. That was one of the things he mentioned, and God's going to bring that time back. And I've seen that in my life, and he mentioned it as well. And here's the thing about this, you know, we think sometimes I don't have time to read the Bible for 15 minutes or 30 minutes or this long, but you know, if you would use the time for God, God's going to find a way to get that time back to you. It's the same thing with giving tithing. God tells us to tithe, if we obey his rules, then we don't have to worry about where are we going to sleep at night, where are we going to get food to eat. God's going to provide however he provides. He's going to find a way to do it. But see, here's the thing about this, when we get offended so easily, if we constantly are getting in fights with people and getting mad at people, and it seems like everybody's against us, maybe actually the problem is us. If we're easily getting offended and hurting other people, maybe we just don't love this book enough. The Bible says, great peace have they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend them. Let's close in a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here this evening, and I just ask you to help everyone in this room, including...